Evening star. [volume], May 25, 1953, Page ** A-13, Image 13

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
David Lawrence:
Red China Can Act for Peace
/
Latest U. N. Formula on Korea Is Ingenious Compromise
And Can Easily Establish Truce if Foe Prefers One
If Red China really wants
a truce in Korea, this fact
will be established in the next
few days by her willingness
to accept a sensible formula
devised by the United Nations
countries directly involved in
the conflict.
The latest peace plan con
forms to the basic positions
already taken by both sides
in previous announcements
and offers. It is an ingenious
compromise.
The essentials of the plan
are these:
1. The allies stand together
in being willing to accept a
decision —to be made after
hostilities have ceased—by a
“political conference” of five
nations as to which prisoners
shall be returned to Commu
nist custody and which ones
shall be released as civilians
with the right to go wherever
they please.
2. During a period of 90 days
—and that’s a stipulated time
limit—representatives of the
Communists will be permitted
to go back of the United Na
tions lines and talk with the
48,000 prisoners and present
arguments as to why they
should return to Communist
jurisdiction.
3. At the end of the 90
days, a five-nation commission
will examine the individual
cases and be asked to certify
whether those who say they
want to return to the Commu
nist side did so voluntarily or
under coercion. The commis
sion’s decision will be final.
4. Whether, in making a de
cision on these cases, the five
member commission will vote
unanimously or by majority
depends on the wording of the
document finally agreed upon.
The whole plan contem-.
plates “voluntary repatria
tion” but the Communists
have been so confident that
they could persuade the 48,-
Doris Fleeson:
What Price McCarthyism?
Britain Could Force Action Over Senator's Charges
On China Trade by Revealing All of the Facts
The price abroad of Mc-
Carthyism began to appear last
week end when British news
papers demanded that the
British government take formal
issue with the United States
Government over the Mc-
Carthy charges against British
shipping in the China trade.
The British know that their
position is understood at the
State Department. They know
that Secretary of State Dulles
supported it in at least two
letters to Senator McCarthy.
These letters have still to be
made public.
Vice President Nixon, it is
also known, persuaded Sena
tor McCarthy to withdraw the
letter he threatened to write
President Eisenhower in the
matter. The Nixon interven
tion is defensible on the
ground that the President
should not be put on the spot
in so serious a matter of for
eign policy.
Actually it helps Senator
McCarthy even more. Once
the President is involved, he
must put his great prestige
firmly on one side or the other
and it might very well be that
the Senator would be the loser.
Senator McCarthy’s ready ac
Thomas L. Stokes:
New Raid by Cattle 'Barons'
House Group's Hearings Reveal Public Revulsion in West
To Proposal to Revise U. S. Law on Stock Grazing
The whole saga of the West,
first, the ravishing of its land
and its forests and the wasting
of its waters by unthinking
pioneers, and, then, the re
cuperative measures in the last
50 years to restore and build
up—all of that unfolds before
you as you sit, as this report
er has for several days, in the
House Interior and Insular
Affairs Committee.
It is a dramatic, and in its
later episodes, an encouraging
story.
Except—that the reason it
all comes out is because, once
again, the spoilers are at it.
Yes, even before President
Eisenhower signed into law last
Saturday the bill to give off
shore oil lands to the States,
the wheels were in motion,
here in this Interior Commit
tee room, for another at
tempted raid on our public do
main, this time chiefly in the
West.
This concerns grazing of
cattle and sheep on our public
lands and in our national
forests. That has to be done
properly and with due care
to the grass cover which is
needed to hold down the soil,
to prevent erosion, to conserve
all the water possible for a
land that is short of water,
to prevent floods, to protect
the timber growth. Grazing
was once done indiscrimi
nately. which explains many
of the waste and denuded
areas of today.
The Forest Service of the
Agriculture Department looks
after conservation of our
national forests and super
vises grazing on those public
lands. Grazing on other public
lands outside the national
forests is under supervision
and regulation of the Bureau
of Land Management of the
Interior Department, under
terms of the Taylor Act of
1934. The Forest Service has
000 prisoners to go back to
them that it now has come
down to a question of what
is meant by “persuading” or
by “presenting the facts” to
the prisoners themselves. The
way is opened for the Com
munists to use a “face saving”
device to protect them on the
propaganda front. They can,
if they like, always accuse the
Allies of "coercing” and “in
timidating” the prisoners if a
majority don’t go back. If
by chance a majority do go
back to Communist jurisdic
tion, neither Moscow nor
Peiping needs to be very
much concerned about the way
the final statistics on the re
luctant minority show up—
especially since the decision
will not be known until at
least 90 days after the fighting
has ceased. By that time such
important questions as “uni
fication of Korea” will be in
the limelight and neither side
is likely to avail itself of
technicalities about the re
turn of prisoners as an excuse
to resume fighting. Instead,
the palavering then could go
on for years.
Such concessions as have
been made in the Allied pro
posals for a truce have been
in the interest of testing the
good faith of the Communists.
If they don’t want a truce,
they can find plenty of things
to argue about and on which
to deadlock the negotiations
further. But it is significant
that before the latest plan
was sent to Gen. Mark Clark
in Tokyo for presentation to
the Communists by Gen. Wil
liam Harrison, the United
States Government entered
into full and frank discussions
with the governments of Brit
ain and France and it may be
stated authoritatively that all
the Allies are in absolute
agreement.
Another precaution taken
quiescence indicates that he
knows this very well and pre
ferred to take the headline
cash and let the future credit
go.
Indeed, as of now, the Sena
tor is inevitably the major
beneficiary of the Vice Presi
dent’s repeated peace-making
between the White House and
Senator McCarthy. In any
real contest between the two,
the President must and will
win for the present.
' It is a favor to the Senator
to give him a chance to make
an apparently generous ges
ture toward Gen. Eisenhower.
He will always take it—until
he is satisfied the Eisenhower
luster is dimmed.
The British are offering a
series of statements and facts,
officially and through shipping
concerns which assert the op
posite of the McCarthy testi
mony. They have no confi
dence that they will be allowed
by the Senator to clutter up
his juicy record.
The thorniest point of all.
of course, is the charge that
British ships transported Chi
nese Communist troops along
the China coast within the
past year. This has very high
more discretion, without spe
cific statute such as the Taylor
Act, because its problem is
different, the land it is con
serving is much more val
uable.
This brings us to the new
raid on conservation.
For a long time, livestock
interests—though by no means
all of them in the Western
public lands—have wanted to
shake off the restraining
hand of the Forest Service,
particularly, but also to loosen
the control of the Bureau of
Land Management.
This would be done in the
bill now being considered by
the House Interior and Insular
Affairs Committee. It would
weaken the authority of
the Secretary of Agriculture
and the Forest Service in his
department over grazing lands
m national forests, and would
set up virtually vested rights
in now existing grazing per
mits, both in the national
forests and in other public
lands. The national forests
are the real goal in this bill,
though it is presented in the
guise of a measure to get
“uniformity” by having the
same rules and regulations for
them as for other public lands
covered by the Taylor Act. Or,
as the bill was described by a
fighting editor, Robert W.
Sawyer, publisher of the
Bend (Oreg.) Bulletin, it “has
been on the assembly of cer
tain livestock interests for
many years.
“The fact is that this legis
lation harks back to the days
of land script. The -grazing
privilege would become some
thing that the holder could
sell as he pleased. In other
words the present permittee
could sell rights to a specific
piece of the public land and
the public would have prac
tically no voice in the transac
tion."
Expert witnesses before the
committee feared that the
here by the State Department
was to invite the members of
subcommittees of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee and
of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee last week to listen
to an explanation of the latest
formula and to make sugges
tions before the final draft
was presented. Most of the dis
cussion turned on whether a
unanimous vote or a majority
vote should prevail in the five
nation commission. Since
Poland and Czechoslovakia will
vote the way the Com
munists want them to vote and
since Sweden and Switzerland
will deal objectively with the
issues of fact that may arise—
as to whether the prisoners are
coerced or really persuaded to
go back the vote in many
cases could be a tie and then
India's representative would
have to cast the deciding
ballot. If unanimity is required,
any of the five nations would
have the power of veto and be
able to block the return of the
prisoners who were proved to
have been intimidated either by
threats about the safety of
their families behind Commu
nist lines or by “brain twist
ing.”
It is probeble the allies will
insist on having their own ob
servers present when prisoners
are being interviewed about
their return to Communist
territory. Indian troops will be
permitted to take charge of
the prisoner camps once the
armistice machinery is set in
motion.
It has not been expected
here that a Korean truce would
come immediately but only
after another recess during
which the Communists ex
amine the counterproposals
being made by the allies. The
showdown or climax, however,
is at hand as the area for
negotiation has narrowed.
(Reproduction Right* Reserved)
emotional content; many Brit
ish here are advising it cannot
be allowed to rest.
Their best information on
Senator McCarthy’s "proof”
is unofficial. Scuttlebutt at the
hearing was that a United
States Navy submarine took
pictures purporting to show
this situation and sent the pic
tures to Washington where—
like everything else these days
—they were leaked to Senator
McCarthy.
The British say that, (1)
several British ships were con
fiscated by the Chinese and it
could have been one of those,
(2) if the United States Navy,
gets any such information, the
British Navy should be the
first to receive it and can be
depended upon to act on it.
It is argued in some quarters
that the best thing to do with
these issues officially is to
leave them alone as much as
possible. But Korea and any
thing having to do with it burn
in the hearts of Americans, cer
tainly those whose families are
affected by the actual fighting.
Thus advice also given to the
British here is to force the
China trade issue even against
White House reluctance.
loosening of authority of the
Agriculture and Interior De
partments and the provision
for court review of the Sec
retary of Agriculture’s deci
sions—which they saw as ham
stringing and perhaps dila
tory—might not only inter
fere with necessary conserva
tion practices, but also open
the way for powerful livestock
interests to acquire vast hold
ings in the public domain
through speculation in graz
ing permits.
There are encouraging signs
in the hearings: First, evidence
of public revulsion in the West
against the bill, which is spon
sored in the House by Repre
sentative D’Ewart, Republican,
of Montana, and in the Sen
ate by Senators Butler. Repub
lican, of Nebraska, and Bar
rett, Republican, of Wyoming;
and. second, the seemingly
antagonistic attitude, or at
least dubious attitude, of the
Eisenhower administration.
Thus far, both Secretary of
Agriculture Benson and Secre
tary of Interior McKay have
warily refused to make a policy
statement about the measure.
It was reported that the Agri
culture Department actually
had prepared an adverse re
port, but that this was with
held on pressure from the
measure’s promoters.
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LOUIE —By Harry Hanan
g * ’
Fletcher Knebel:
Potomac Fever
Secretary of Defense Wilson faces mounting anger in Con
gress over Air Force budget cuts. Some Congressmen want to
fire the secretary for defense—and get one for offense.
* * * •
Americans for Democratic Action resolve to fight “political
conformity.” Yeah, let’s all get together and march against
conformity—and let’s not have anybody getting out of step,
either.
•* * •
A Senate committee reports the ammunition shortage was
still serious last winter. There’ll be plenty of ammunition soon,
however—now that we’ve apparently decided to make fewer
guns for it.
• • • •
Gen. Eisenhower’s followers in Congress slash spending for
rivers and harbors. Everybody has favored economy in general—
at long last we’ve got a general who favors economy in everybody.
• * * •
The Eisenhower administration refuses to give Government
workers a Monday holiday after Decoration Day. Officials can’t
afford to relax on a Monday—so many problems accumulate
over the week end that need to be pigeon-holed.
* * * *
The President visited the mountain retreat Shangri-la which
he has renamed "Camp David.” He knows by now that nothing
connected with Washington can be a Shangri-la.
* * * *
Gen. Eisenhower lunches with 29 classmates of the West
Point class of 1915. He likes to hob-nob with his old military
buddies—he doesn’t have to keep a civil tongue in his head.
McCarthy Rules U. S.
To Big Extent, Aided
By Dulles, Davies Says
The Rev. A. Powell Davies,
pastor of All Souls’ Church, yes-
I terday told a Boston meeting
| that Senator McCarthy is
already ruling the United States
“to a great extent” and Secre
tary of State Dulles "might well
be called his administrative as
sistant.”
Addressing the annual meet
ing of the American Unitarian
Association, the minister brought
up the report subsequently
denied by the State Department
—that his books were banned in
the department’s overseas in
-1 formation service.
| He called the State Depart
ment “doubtless the most fear
ridden of the agencies of gov
ernment.”
"The fact that I have been
against communism all my life
| does not count,” he said. “It is
the fact that I have criticized
the untruths and injustices of
i the investigating committees that
is given weight. I am what is
called a controversial person;
that is to say, one who does not
: keep quiet in the presence of
I evil.
“And so it was reported—and
for a significantly long length
of time was not denied, although
the newspapers for hour after
hour maintained their inquiries
—that my books are banned.”
Hand and Gershwin Mentioned.
Os far greater importance, he
said, was the fact that the books
of Judge Learned Hand and
George Gershwin also were re
ported banned.
The report that these books
had been banned came in a
speech last Wednesday night by
Lawrence Wadsworth, former
deputy chief of public affairs in
the Bureau of Far Eastern
Affairs.
Dr. Davies said he was not
impressed with the State De
partment’s denial of the book
ban.
“Denial is not enough,” he
declared. “There should be
some explanation.”
Dr. Davies also charged that
“these men who say that they
are not against the church,
although they have slandered
churchmen of high character
and wide reputation . . . really
are against the church.”
Like all other tyrants, he said,
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they will see the church as
standing in their way.
“They want us to believe that
if you are against communism, it
does not matter whether you are
just and truthful, or whether
you uphold the decencies of
American life.”
The United States, he declared,
is becoming a nation of fear and
Washington “a city of intimi
dated people.”
“Not only ordinary workers
for the Government, but those
in high positions—indeed, the
Government itself—is now afraid.
There is no chance at all, none
whatever, that a frightened na
tion will survive.” he said.
“I do not hesitate to say,” he
went on, “that, at present, no
major proposal in foreign policy
which was disliked by Senator
McCarthy would be advanced by
the Government. It is no longer
a question of whether the Sen
ator from Wisconsin will some
day rule the United States; to
a great extent he is ruling it al
ready.”
District Minister Asks
Investigation of Probers
A prominent Methodist minis
ter declared yesterday that since
every section of American life is
being investigated, “we should in
vestigate the investigators.”
Dr. Edward G. Latch told his
congregation in Metropolitan
Methodist Church, Nebraska and
New Mexico avenues N.W.. we
are now a Nation fearful of in
vestigations.
“We are anxious and afraid
and just do not know what is
going to happen and when,” he
said. “This fear makes us afraid
of investigations.
“We have nothing—as honest,
loyal, Christian people—to fear
from investigation. Let them in
vestigate the church and the pub
lic school. Government workers
and labor unions.
“If we are going to complete
the picture, we should investi
gate the investigators.”
The minister asserted “the only
thing we ought to insist upon is
that the investigation be fair and
honest, with a constructive end
in view. It should not be by lies
or slander or half-truths.”
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Constantine Brown:
U. S. Money Has Bought Hatred
French Friend of This Country Reports Many Europeans
Discount Red Threat, Want Yanks to Go Back Home
A highly reputable and ex
perienced French newspaper
man whose business takes him
all over Europe writes in a let
ter received recently by this
reporter that at no time during
his long career has he noticed
as much annoyance and dis
like fringing on hatred
toward America and Amer
icans.
Everywhere in Europe dis
trust and antipathy for the
United States has reached an
unprecedented height. The fact
that this country has contrib
uted so many billions for the
economic recovery of the free
countries in the West is re
membered by only a handful
of politicians, bankers and in
dustrialists. But the masses on
whom the governments depend
have completely forgotten.
“Go home, Yankee” is no
longer a Communist slogan.
It represents actually the gen
eral feeling of our friends.
“You are like a guest who has
overstayed his welcome,” writes
this “unattached” newspaper
man—a rarity in the European
newspaper fraternity.
The restoration of European
industries helped at first be
cause they prevented large
scale unemployment. But now
the factories cannot sell much
of their production because of
the lack of markets. Un
employment due to overpro
duction is staring the Europe
ans in the face. This is the
main reason why the Russian
peace dove has been accepted
with such alacrity by the rank
and file of the people west of
the Rhine.
Europeans care little about
the lack of freedoms in the
U. S. S. R. and satellite coun
tries and discount as “not our
business” the reports of con 4
centration and forced labor
camps. All Europeans west of
the Rhine hate the idea of
serving in their national armed
forces and consider our urging
for an increased defense sys
Dorothy Thompson:
Teaching Opinionated Ignorance
High School Students Learn to Take Sides on Issues
About Which They Have Not Been Given Facts
A survey recently reported
by the New York Times reveals
that no "climate of fear” exists
in New York’s schools, and that
few teachers refuse “to discuss
the vital issues of the day.”.
There is hardly an issue of any
importance—foreign or domes
tic—that has not been dis
cussed in classrooms by some
teachers. Topics being taught
are: Should the United States
continue to support Chiang
Kai-shek? Should our foreign
policy be changed in Korea?
Should Communist China be
seated in the U. N.? Should
price control be maintained?
Should we lower taxes? And so
ad-infinitum.
I am glad to learn that the
much publicized “terrorization
of freedom of thought” is
practically nonexistent in New
York’s public schools.
What, however, still needs
discussion is the place of such
subjects in primary and sec
ondary education!
We are rearing a genera
tion of high-school students,
vast numbers of whom cannot
solve a simple problem in plane
geometry, construct a para
graph of intelligible grammat
ical prose, spell many words in
current use at the newspaper
level, or give anything like a
coherent account of American
history, let alone the history of
the rest of the world. Their
ignorance of geography is no
torious.
Yet these adolescents with
such pitiable gaps in funda
mental education are encour
aged to hold forth on ques
tions that perplex the minds
of trained economists, dis
tinguished historians and
THE EVENING STAR, Washington, D. C.
MONDAY, MAT *6. 1953
tem as an interference in their
domestic affairs.
The war-weary Europeans
believe the Communist charges
that "America intends to make
her allies into cannon fodder
and has fattened them up
through the Marshall plan in
order to use them later in
fighting Russia with the sons
of European mothers.”
With very rare exceptions,
the American propaganda serv
ices have done nothing to pre
vent this situation and “Amer
icans by and large have be
haved like boors,” writes this
pro-American friend. Even the
influx of American tourists
has not been welcome in some
countries such as France and
Italy. Some industries have
benefited from the import of
dollars, but on the other hand
this has also raised the cost
of living for people who during
the summer season cannot
spend money as lavishly as the
Americans.
Germany, where the anti-
American feeling has been felt
less in the past, is at the point
of following the example of her
neighbors. The American
troops are well disciplined and
behaved. But the presence of
an army of occupation on a
foreign territory for a long
time is necessarily resented by
the populace. The fact that
this army is a shield against
possible aggression from the
east makes little impression on
the people in towns and vil
lages. Until the enemy actually
marches in they cannot see
the threat of an invasion.
The idea that the Russians
have no hostile intentions to
ward the people of Western
Europe is gaining ground
daily. It is a matter of in
difference to these people to
day whether the U. S. S. R.
and her satellites want to have
a showdown with the United
States. That, in the opinion
of good Europeans is a matter
between those two powers.
statesmen, and on which any
opinion is dubious unless
backed by greater factual
knowledge than most adults—
including their teachers—
possess.
The minds of students
might profit if consideration
of present-day issues took the
form of acquiring knowledge,
not of uttering opinions.
What does an American
teen-ager know of the history
of Korea? Was it ever a fully
independent state, and if so,
when? What is the meaning
of "suzerainty”? Under whose
suzerainty has Korea been in
the past? Has this suzerainty
changed? If so, when and
under what conditions? What
was the attitude of the Euro
pean powers toward these
changes? Os the United
States? What role did Korea
play in World War II? How
did the partition of Korea
occur?
The answers to such ques
tions are matters of fact. Mat
ters of fact can be taught.
They are not controversial.
What do students encour
aged to discuss American sup
port of Chiang Kai-shek know
about him? Can they give an
account of the totality of his
relations with the Soviet Un
ion? What do they know of
the history of the Kuomin
tang? Os the Chinese Commu
nist Party? When, and where,
was it organized?
What do they know of ear
lier Chinese history? How has
China been ruled in the last
hundred years? At what time
did China reach her greatest
power and geographic exten
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They see no reason whatso
ever why they should be sucked
into such a maelstrom, too.
Even our preferred help to
the French who are fighting in
Indo-China seems to be mis
understood. This war which
has been going on for seven
years has drained the French
treasury of upward of $6 bil
lion and is highly unpopular.
The prevailing opinion of the
man in the street who happens
to talk about that far away
“colonial” campaign is that by
a good understanding with
Moscow the war could be called
off immediately. America, they
say. is throwing a few hundred
million dollars into it to keep
the kettle boiling for its own
purposes. The political men
who know better don’t dare
contradict this view too loudly.
They know that elections may
be around the corner and the
man in the street holds the
life of the politicians In his
hand.
But where the man in the
street and the politician see
definitely eye to eye is in the
agreement that Europe needs
no armed forces and no dollars
but only new markets. And the
800 million people who live be
hind the Iron Curtain are po
tential customers for every
thing from shoe-laces to elec
trical equipment. There is no
need to worry over dollar bal
ances. These people are ready
to barter as soon as Moscow
says the word. Moreover, * .•
story is going around Europe
that there are “mountains of
gold in the U. S. S. R..’’ more
than America guards so jeal
ously in its caves.
“You would be surprised.’*
concludes the French news
man, “if you came to Europe at
the amount of hostility which
prevails against your country
and your countrymen. You
would be equally surprised to
find out the esteem in which
the Russians are held in many
sections of Europe.”
sion? What, at that time, wera
her frontiers?
What, during the last cen
tury, have been China’s rela
tions with the rest of Asia?
Russia? The European pow
ers? America?
These are only a few of the
questions necessary to a judg
ment of the China question.
But how can such a study be
pursued within a public school
curriculum?
Students are untrained in
research. Repeatedly, I get
letters from pupils asking me
some questions to which they
could find the answers in the
Encyclopaedia Britannica or
the World Almanac, and others
that all the statesmen in the
world can’t answer.
This week a high school
pupil wrote (in a letter with
four misspelled words): “I am
to discuss ‘How can we win
permanent peace with na
tional and personal free
dom?’” Please give me your
views. If I knew that answer
I would be unique.
Last week another pupil
wrote: “I am to discuss ‘Brit
ish versus American proced
ures of justice.’ What do you
think?”
I could not properly answer
this youngster without much
research, and some expert
knowledge of law. But this
does not bother Tom, Dick,
Mary, or their teachers.
What comes out of all these
discussions? Nothing, except
a parroting of teachers or par
ents’ opinions, or the news
papers they read, or the panel
discussions they hear, learn
ing, out of the process, nothing
except how to be superficial,
voluble, and opinionated.